Friday, 29 October 2010

UN to Impose Geoengineering Moratorium on Risky Climate Techno-Fixes

This is very important good news. Geoengineering puts our ecosystems at dire risk (and distracts from actually fixing the climate - which is why Newt Gingrich loves it).

...Major victory for common sense as hacking of planetary ecosystems is premature until such time as all other options are exhausted; and until there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur.

NAGOYA, Japan - Ecological Internet welcomes reports that the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments. This is a tremendous victory for the ETC Group's "Hands Off Mother Earth" campaign [1], which has carefully researched and presented the case for such a moratorium on "planet hacking", and with whom Ecological Internet is affiliated. "Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus," stated Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director of ETC Group. The ETC Group's full press release on the victory, as well as the full text of the agreement, is included below.

In announcing the outcome, the ETC Group publicly thanked Ecological Internet "for help winning a moratorium on Geoengineering" and particularly those that had "written to CBD delegates and spread the word. Many many thanks for your active campaigning. Your letters. really had an impact." This is in reference to Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network's largest online email protest ever, where people from 83 countries sent 1,806,339 protest emails to CBD delegates just before the conference commenced [2]. Each delegate received just over 2,000 letters - just enough to make a critical ecological point, while being minimally disruptive - letting those in positions of power to doing something, that global citizens are opposed to geoengineering. It appears to have made a huge difference in the outcome.

"Ecological Internet is simply thrilled to have been involved with the ETC Group led campaign to place a moratorium on geoengineering. The atmosphere is a global commons, and 'hacking' it to avoid reducing emissions, protecting old forests, and ending coal and tar sands is dangerous and irresponsible. The precautionary principle clearly justifies a ban on large-scale geoengineering experiments and implementation, until all other options are exhausted, and there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur," explains Dr. Glen Barry, EI's President. "This is almost certainly the biggest victory EI's large global network, together with allies, has ever achieved - as without this UN guidance, almost certainly private interests and climate-negligent countries were poised to launch large-scale, risky experiments upon our shared biosphere."

### MORE ###

Geoengineering is the proposed large scale manipulation of Earth's oceans, soils and atmosphere with the intent of combating climate change. Geoengineering advocates have put forward a wide range of proposals to artificially modify these ecosystems to address climate change including: blasting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun; dumping iron particles in the oceans to grow CO2-absorbing plankton; firing silver iodide into clouds to produce rain; genetically engineering crops to have reflective leaves; spraying seawater into clouds to make clouds whiter; dumping large quantities of plant matter into the ocean, and burning plants from a huge land area to produce charcoal for burying in soils. Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering [3] is a new publication by ETC Group that provides an overview of the issues involved.

Ecological Internet holds that modifying Earth at a planetary scale is so complex, and ecological and other side effects potentially so severe, that clearly humanity is incapable of safely engineering a biosphere. EI advocates for this and other ecologically sufficient positions necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability. This is the eighth major conservation victory for EI in 2010, though EI's massive global network operates under the radar of most media, NGOs and the public. Sadly, Ecological Internet is chronically under-funded, depending upon network members for funding, and may have to close or significantly cutback operations - after all funds are expended - if the current 11th annual year-end fund-raiser does not pick up [4]. EI urges participation in its current alert to halt the Tar Sands pipeline through B.C., Canada's temperate rainforests [5].

4 Comments:

The country will soon be in the grip of cuts way more savage than Thatcher would have dared and still the Green bloggers are giving us worries over climate techno-fixes. Yes, I know we're all going to die from climate change in the medium-term Rupert, but if you addressed the immediate concerns of large areas of the country re the cuts, you might tap into a lot of potential support now that the Lib Dems are out of the game. Otherwise you run the risk (again) of appearing to be an irrelevant luxury of the guilt-ridden middle classes.

Dear oh dear... Look, please don't lecture me about being active on the cuts. I am busy every day in relation to the cuts, as are other Norwich and Eastern Greens - check out our press releases, hear us speak at demos, watch what my colleagues and in the 'No shock doctrine' campaign are doing, and so on. BUT it would be completely insane to let concern about the cuts ECLIPSE concern about the very future of life on Earth. If we as a species gamble on a geo-engineering 'solution' that misfires, then the cuts will be the least of our worries, for our entire civilisation will be under threat.So, yes: I am all for picking up loads of LibDem votes by offering an effective opposition to the cuts that the govt are bringing in (and that Labour would have brought in too in many cases, only less quickly). But it is really sad to hear you give up and say that we are all going to die from climate change anyway. And it is ludicrous to talk about the survival of human civilisation as an 'irrelevant luxury'. And by the way, I for one am not guilt-ridden. Speak for yourself! ;-)

This is very important good news. Geoengineering puts our ecosystems at dire risk (and distracts from actually fixing the climate - which is why Newt Gingrich loves it).

...Major victory for common sense as hacking of planetary ecosystems is premature until such time as all other options are exhausted; and until there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur.

NAGOYA, Japan - Ecological Internet welcomes reports that the 193-member UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) will close its tenth biennial meeting with a de facto moratorium on geoengineering projects and experiments. This is a tremendous victory for the ETC Group's "Hands Off Mother Earth" campaign [1], which has carefully researched and presented the case for such a moratorium on "planet hacking", and with whom Ecological Internet is affiliated. "Any private or public experimentation or adventurism intended to manipulate the planetary thermostat will be in violation of this carefully crafted UN consensus," stated Silvia Ribeiro, Latin American Director of ETC Group. The ETC Group's full press release on the victory, as well as the full text of the agreement, is included below.

In announcing the outcome, the ETC Group publicly thanked Ecological Internet "for help winning a moratorium on Geoengineering" and particularly those that had "written to CBD delegates and spread the word. Many many thanks for your active campaigning. Your letters. really had an impact." This is in reference to Ecological Internet's Earth Action Network's largest online email protest ever, where people from 83 countries sent 1,806,339 protest emails to CBD delegates just before the conference commenced [2]. Each delegate received just over 2,000 letters - just enough to make a critical ecological point, while being minimally disruptive - letting those in positions of power to doing something, that global citizens are opposed to geoengineering. It appears to have made a huge difference in the outcome.

"Ecological Internet is simply thrilled to have been involved with the ETC Group led campaign to place a moratorium on geoengineering. The atmosphere is a global commons, and 'hacking' it to avoid reducing emissions, protecting old forests, and ending coal and tar sands is dangerous and irresponsible. The precautionary principle clearly justifies a ban on large-scale geoengineering experiments and implementation, until all other options are exhausted, and there are global protocols, consensus and a sound scientific basis for any geoengineering that may or may not occur," explains Dr. Glen Barry, EI's President. "This is almost certainly the biggest victory EI's large global network, together with allies, has ever achieved - as without this UN guidance, almost certainly private interests and climate-negligent countries were poised to launch large-scale, risky experiments upon our shared biosphere."

### MORE ###

Geoengineering is the proposed large scale manipulation of Earth's oceans, soils and atmosphere with the intent of combating climate change. Geoengineering advocates have put forward a wide range of proposals to artificially modify these ecosystems to address climate change including: blasting sulfate particles into the upper atmosphere to reflect the sun; dumping iron particles in the oceans to grow CO2-absorbing plankton; firing silver iodide into clouds to produce rain; genetically engineering crops to have reflective leaves; spraying seawater into clouds to make clouds whiter; dumping large quantities of plant matter into the ocean, and burning plants from a huge land area to produce charcoal for burying in soils. Geopiracy: The Case Against Geoengineering [3] is a new publication by ETC Group that provides an overview of the issues involved.

Ecological Internet holds that modifying Earth at a planetary scale is so complex, and ecological and other side effects potentially so severe, that clearly humanity is incapable of safely engineering a biosphere. EI advocates for this and other ecologically sufficient positions necessary to achieve global ecological sustainability. This is the eighth major conservation victory for EI in 2010, though EI's massive global network operates under the radar of most media, NGOs and the public. Sadly, Ecological Internet is chronically under-funded, depending upon network members for funding, and may have to close or significantly cutback operations - after all funds are expended - if the current 11th annual year-end fund-raiser does not pick up [4]. EI urges participation in its current alert to halt the Tar Sands pipeline through B.C., Canada's temperate rainforests [5].